CHAPTER VIII.

Arrival at Gakdul The wells Building forts A search for more wells.

ABOUT seven o'clock, we turned imperceptibly into the track leading to the wells. So imperceptible was the difference in direction, that at first I could not make out why the sun pursued such a curiously crooked course. Suddenly it dawned on me that we ought to be close on the wells, according to calculation, and that the track was making a very gradual bend to the east.

The way now began to get very unpleasant, the ground being strewn with large round stones, which made the camels slither about in a dangerous way, and seriously disturbed the dressing of the column. We were now entering a sort of broad defile, hemmed in apparently on all sides by steep, rocky, black hills.

The column now halted for ten minutes to allow